THE first man in Singapore to be convicted for having sex with an underage prostitute had his one-year jail term reduced to nine months on appeal to the High Court.

Renovation contractor Tan Chye Hin, a 55-year-old father of three children, was dealt with under a new law put in place in February last year, which makes it an offence to pay for sex with someone below the age of 18.

Tan was initially sentenced to a year's jail by a district court in December. One month earlier, the pimp who arranged the hook-up for Tan was jailed a year by the High Court.

On Friday, Justice Lee Seiu Kin allowed Tan's appeal against his initial sentence, on grounds that it was only fair that he gets a shorter jail term than the pimp, who played a greater role in the offence.

Justice Lee took into account arguments by Tan's lawyer, Mr R. S. Bajwa, that this was a new offence and that greater publicity could have prevented his client from committing it.

Mr Bajwa had argued that even though there was publicity in the media about the new law, where was a lack of a public education campaign to drive home the message.

The lawyer noted that when he went to Geylang, there was not a single poster put up to state that it was a crime to have sex with a prostitute under the age of 18.

The only posters he saw were 'no smoking' and 'room for hire - $10'.

Tan could have been jailed for a maximum of seven years and fined.